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TIMtoE - Static Mesh Converter

I've finally got a version of a TIM to .E format converter working well enough to let you folks play with it. You can find it on my web site (see sig) under the Tools page.

It's a command line tool, so you need to run it in a command prompt window. I'm working on a nice GUI version, but GUIs take more time to build. The ZIP file is just the executable and a little Readme file.

NOTE: I convert the objects using the existing scaling, so in most 3D editors, the objects will be HUGE. You'll need to scale them appropriately.

I don't do anything with converting textures, so you'll have to dig them out yourself and convert them into something compatible with your 3D editor. When I release the GUI version, it will automatically (if you want) extract the textures and convert them to a selected format.

I'm working on the reverse translation, from 3DS into TIM format, but it'll take more time.

If you guys run into bugs, problems, things that won't convert properly, etc - post the problem here or email me. Let me know the object that's giving you trouble and I'll dig into it and find out what's wrong.

Shadowspawn's Thief Pages
Darkness is always faster than light. No matter how fast light travels, it always finds the dark waiting for it.

Blender

TimtoE & Eto3DS works well with Blender (along with the import-3ds python script). Now if I only knew how to use Blender . . . sidenote: does anyone know any utilities (aside from the expensive ones like Maya or ActorX) that works with UnrealEd skeletal meshes?

What an annoying, fussy, anal program 3DSMax is! After much messing around and a ton of debugging, I FINALLY got it to read in a simple 3DS file (the training footprints). It's about as simple as it can get.

3DSMax hates my 3ds files. It doesn't like quotes around any names, it doesn't like texture names bigger than 8 characters. It just seems generally unhappy, and it won't say what's wrong (except incorrect file format).

I'm trying more complex objects, and it just keeps bitching. None of my other conversion programs dislike my 3ds files. I'll bet 3DSMax can't open the majority of 3ds files out on the internet, they're too variable for it.

Anyway, back to messing with it. Damn!

Shadowspawn's Thief Pages
Darkness is always faster than light. No matter how fast light travels, it always finds the dark waiting for it.

3DSMax insists that text strings imported from 3DS can't be longer than 10 characters. As long as I truncate them, my newest Eto3DS works fine. (I did fix a number of problems in it, though).

Other conversion programs and 3D editors (Truespace for example) can handle the longer names, or truncate them automatically.

It sounds like I need a command line option for Eto3DS to use "3DSMax" mode, which will truncate strings (texture names, objects names, etc) to 10 characters. I'll also need the option for the TIM 3DS program, but I'll make that a checkbox option on the settings panel.

However, texture names and the object names in T3 are much longer. Somehow I need to allow the user to edit them during the 3DS to TIM conversion... I'll have to think about it. Suggestions?

Shadowspawn's Thief Pages
Darkness is always faster than light. No matter how fast light travels, it always finds the dark waiting for it.

You could pop up a dialog giving the user a list of all the original names that are too long, and giving them the opportunity to change them. (Ideally through a two-column list view control, where only one column is editable.) You could pick sensible defaults as well. (Say, the truncated names, with numbers on the end if there are naming collisions.)

If you want to automatically restore the names when a conversion is done back the other way, you could have the TIM->3DS conversion generate a simple text file in the same directory as the new 3DS file, mapping every original name to each new name (even unchanged ones). Then the 3DS->TIM conversion could look for that file and map the names back. (If the file is missing, you could pop up a reversed version of the name editing control I mentioned above, and/or give them the opportunity to browse for the file.)

I'll have a fixed Eto3DS sometime today (although work is going to get in the way). And I'll add a "original text" output file to TIMtoE, to save the original names, for future 3ds -> TIM conversions. You should be able to play with it all weekend.

Shadowspawn's Thief Pages
Darkness is always faster than light. No matter how fast light travels, it always finds the dark waiting for it.

Does anyone know if these formats will work with Anim8or? I don't know Blender (hell, I don't really even know Anim8or) but when I open Anim8or to load or try to save, the only options are Anim8or format, or "Any." No specific mention of 3DS.

It's at my web site, you'll need to download the "Free The Objects" toolkit on the Tools page. The version of Eto3DS has been updated to version 1.30, it contains a new option, and the readme for that file has been updated .

The /t option will truncate object names to 10 characters, and texture groups and file names to 8 or 8.3 format. That seems to make Max happy with the handfull of files I've had tested.

I'll eventually update TIMtoE to output an extra file which has all the object info which gets lost in the translation. But, I want to make it compatible with the files from the GUI version, so let me see how that finally comes out before I do that update.

As always, email me or post here if you find a file which doesn't work. I'll try and fix it promptly.

Shadowspawn's Thief Pages
Darkness is always faster than light. No matter how fast light travels, it always finds the dark waiting for it.